As a conventional method of recording moving image data, it has been stored in a tape device such as a magnetic tape. As it is impossible to get random access to the moving image data stored in such a tape device, it is necessary to actually create a moving image stream in video editing. In recent years, however, it became possible to store moving image in a device allowing the random access such as a hard disk, and so virtual editing has become possible by successively specifying moving image sections to be reproduced.
Such a virtual editing is very convenient since it allows reediting and so on to be performed easily without losing/altering original information. In addition, in the case where the moving image is stored in a random-accessible device, it is possible to provide a multifunction moving image reproducing apparatus since it allows a moving image search (scene search) with meta-data and a summary reproduction for digestedly reproducing the moving image.
When having edited the moving image, it is necessary to edit the meta-data and summary data by following it. For instance, in the case where the contents of moving image editing are not reflected on the meta-data, there is a possibility that a portion not included in the edited moving image is searched when searching and reproducing the edited moving image with the meta-data. To be more specific, consideration must be given to synchronizing the virtual editing of the moving image with an update of the meta-data so that, in the case where a video segment is searched for by using the meta-data, the video segment deleted by the virtual editing will not show in search hit results.
In addition, while the contents are checked and grasped by seeing a summary of the moving image in the case where there is a large amount of moving image, there arises an inconsistency between the edited moving image and the summary when the summary is reproduced if the contents of moving image editing are not reflected on the summary data. For instance, in the case where an arrangement of the video segments is changed or the video segment is deleted in the virtual editing, order of the scenes by the summary reproduction is different from the edited moving image or the deleted scenes are reproduced so that it gives a sense of incongruity to a person seeing the moving image.
However, it is very burdensome to edit the meta-data and summary data in conjunction with the moving image editing, and there is a tendency that trouble of editing work rather increases even if the editing of the moving image itself becomes easier.